Today, wireless local area networks (WLANs) are widely used for communications between various computer devices and for Internet access. A prominent WLAN technology is known as WiFi, which allows electronic devices to network mainly using the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands. The term WiFi refers to any WLAN product that is based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards.
In 1999, IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b standards were released for WiFi networks. The 802.11a protocol can support data transmissions of up to 54 Mbps, whereas the 802.11b protocol has a longer range than 802.11a but maxes out at a data transmission speed of 11 Mbps.
In 2003, IEEE introduced 802.11g as a new WiFi standard. The 802.11g protocol was designed to operate at a maximum transfer rate of 54 Mbps while allowing for longer range connectivity.
Subsequently, the adoption of 802.11n by IEEE, sometimes called Wireless-N, brought about the ability to transfer data up to 300 Mbps and incorporated multiple wireless signals and antennas to support multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The 802.11n protocol allows data to be transmitted on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies.
The latest WiFi technology from IEEE, i.e. the 802.11ac standard, introduced advancements in dual-band technology, which allows data to be transmitted across multiple signals and bandwidths for maximum transmission rates of 1300 Mbps with extended ranges and nearly uninterrupted transmission.
As WiFi technology continues to advance, multi-user simultaneous transmission techniques, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Uplink (UL) Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO), are candidates for improving wireless network efficiency. Using these techniques, multiple stations (STA) can be allocated within a frame, which requires communication of resource allocation and packet information by an access point (AP) for use by each STA.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.